Dungeon Hero - Preview @ 1Up

1Up is the next to post a preview of the upcoming action rpg from FireFly and Gamecock Media, Dungeon Hero. They talk with Simon Bradbury, game designer.

Going into the combat aspects:

You have realistic sword-swinging abilities.
Bradbury describes Dungeon Hero's combat as "very gritty, very real, and a bit different." By that, he means you won't see blades on chains &agrave; la God of War, but up-close fighting that depends a lot on spacing. "It's about switching tactically at the right time," he says, "between close combat — which is a blocking-based combat [where you push] people away to give you space — and then releasing the left trigger [on the Xbox 360 version] to go back into normal combat to kill stuff."

Moreover, there are about five in-game videos up at gametrailers. I must say that movements suck, especially during combat. I mean, how silly it is to have the protagonist turn around and thus expose his back to the enemy instead of backtracking when the "walk backwards" button is pressed? Since the devs are so obsessed with making the game and its world believable, this is all the more painful, as it's utter nonsense.

I have faith in Firefly studios to pull this one off, if only because they developed one of my most obsessive gaming experiences with Space Colony. Although Dungeon Hero is a different animal, I expect it will have a lot of personality which can make what might be a typical action game much more enjoyable.

I like the idea of interrupting enemies going about their business, like attacking goblins in their homes in Arx Fatalis, some of them fleeing requiring me to chase them down. In fact, now that I think about it, Arx Fatalis is already a perfect example of a living, breathing dungeon.